Steps to diagnose basement water leak from wall and ultimately repair?

I noticed a small area of my basment wall and floor that is damp from water penetration. The wall in question is diretly under my front porch and steps. My first gues is that the cement steps may need to be resealed or I need to dig out plant bed,,,,,seal lower brick area, and then regrade. I live in Michigan and we have had on and off light rain for the past few days. Also, my house is nearly 80 yrs old.